AbbaGav

The opinions of a dad from Israel. Blog includes political and cultural issues from Israel, the Mideast, the US, sometimes even the whole world, all tossed your way with just a dash of humor, and sometimes just outright silliness.

Sunday, July 30, 2006

Obsession: What The War on Terror Is Really About - Google Video

I'll make one point in anticipation of the morally relative challenge I fully expect from some who will watch this video.

The video points out the stunning magnitude of Jihad's attacks throughout the world, and identifies -- with video after video of jihad's populizers -- the threatening ideological core of radical Islam that is behind the Jihad. It clearly shows how these preachers create a hateful, distorted view of the West in order to raise support for the Jihad against the West they claim is attempting to destroy the religion of Islam.

I expect the moral relativists to accuse the West, and the makers of this film, of doing the same thing: raising fear of Islam by claiming there is a Jihad to destroy the West. They will claim this film is just a cynical part of the cycle of fearmongering, and that we should ignore it, instead seeking understanding of the Jihadis' complaints. Do not fall for this argument for a second.

After watching this video, ask yourself what each side seeks to accomplish by identifying threats against it. You willl find that Jihad's supporters use fear of the West to mobilize Muslims to fight the West, and subjugate or destroy it in the name of Islam's global superiority. The West, however, while also responding to the threats it sees against it, does so in the hopes of neutralizing the aggressive message against it, neutralizing the message that seeks to radicalize mainstream Muslims, so that a moderate strain of Islam can finally assert itself without fear, confident in Western support, so that Islam and the West can live in harmony.

Now ask yourself if the West and the radical Jihadis -- those who seek to inflame a religion of one billion to a war against the West -- are morally relative.